Thread: Is sniping killing Ebay?

I understand where the op is coming from. Having a program doing your bidding could get some people mad. I guess you can say I snipe on the bay, but I do it myself sitting in front of the computer or on my phone. There isn't a program doing for me. But what the hell where do I get said program?

There are a lot of strategies. But like any
game players like and dislike what folk do
within the rules.

If you want it sniping by hand or with a program is the way to go.

The problem with auctions is that the high bidder wins. Not the average
going price. Auctions are worse than auto dealers but an auction is often the
only game for odd and rare items.

All in all and omitting luck you will get a MUCH better razor or hone
shopping in the classified here (see the top of this page). Always visit
the sponsors... there is much less uncertainty buying a new razor strop
or hone and these guys stand by their products. When in doubt pick
up the phone or send email and ask.

Originally Posted by Str8Edge

I understand where the op is coming from. Having a program doing your bidding could get some people mad. I guess you can say I snipe on the bay, but I do it myself sitting in front of the computer or on my phone. There isn't a program doing for me. But what the hell where do I get said program?

I have used esnipe since 2003. Haven't used to for 6 years but it did recently help me finally get a replacement hone.

eSnipe - Bid on eBay Automatically - eSnipe 3.0

--Shoki

Originally Posted by Rmaldon240

I think sniping is the only way to go.

If I see something on the bay that I want I decide what it is worth to me and set my snipe and leave it. If I win, great. If not I wait a few days until another one comes along and repeat the process. I don't raise my bid so I don't feel like I bid more than I normally would have. If I had time to sit and monitor Ebay ....I'd still use a sniping program.

I don't see how availing yourself of a resource available to everyone borders on ungentlemanly conduct.

+1 on this. When I was first learning how eBay works years ago, I would just put in a maximum bid at the start of the auction, and always got outbid by last-second sniping on the most desirable items. Now, if I really want something, I snipe too, mostly with success, and sometimes getting outsniped. Oh well... Recently scored two very nice TIs that way!

Originally Posted by Str8Edge

I understand where the op is coming from. Having a program doing your bidding could get some people mad. I guess you can say I snipe on the bay, but I do it myself sitting in front of the computer or on my phone. There isn't a program doing for me. But what the hell where do I get said program?

It's always a program that is doing your bidding. You press some buttons on your keyboard and your mouse, and then the computers take over. I do exactly the same when I set my bid, but I do it on another website, instead of on ebay, because it makes it easier for me. There are tons of them, some are even free (I think gixen.com is), others charge you something like a quarter if your bid is successful...

It is not sniping that killing eBay. It is users who increase bid by $1 or bid 15-25 times in one auction. That's really annoying.

Sometimes I see an item with the 7 day before auction end with 5 bidders and 30 bids. What would you do with this kind of people? - of course you would snipe.

To the original poster--I used to feel the same way. It always seemed like a sniper would slightly best me 6 seconds before the close. But look at it this way, in a growing collectibles market like straight razors, sniping is commonplace and you have to do it if you ever want to win. The biggest upside of sniping is that is makes you decide in the beginning of an auction what you are willing to pay. You don't want to be deciding that in the last few minutes or seconds of an auction--that is the kind of competitive, emotional and recreational bidding that leads to overpaying for an item. Decide beforehand whether you want to pay below, at or above market value and place the bid. The other positive, as has already been stated, is that it limits the runup of the fools that are bidding up the price too early in an emotional way.

The downside of sniping is that you may not have a good idea of what the range of the final sales price will be. That is where research helps. And then I use my own rule of thumb that the winning bid is about 3X the bid price 24 hours prior to closing.

Ebay is not like bricks and mortar auctions, where you can look at everyone as you bid and participate in a relatively slow buildup (1 min. vs 6 secs). Some find that fun, but for me that is actually more stressful.

I dont think it is. For one thing it allows me to bid on US auctions that often end around 2am UK time, which I wouldnt be able to do otherwise!

Its just another bidding strategy really, and whether you want to use it or not is up to you. I like it because I can set a bid (away from the heat of a bidding war) and then just leave it. If I win great, if not then no worries and I didnt overpay.

As a young boy I was taken on an overnight camping trip with a large group of boys and several adults. We sat around the fire and told stories cooked hot dogs and roasted marshmallows. Great memories! The adults also took us out into the woods for a snipe hunt. They put us into pairs spread far apart from each other so we couldn't see the next pair, gave us an empty feed sack, a flashlight, and a stick. We were told to hold the flash light so that it would shine into the sack, this would attract the snipe and as the snipe flew into the sack, hit it with the stick and kill it. They left us out there for about an hour. We did not kill any snipe, nor did we see any come toward our light. But they were there, we heard them rustling through the leaves on the ground and in the trees. Much larger critters were out there also. We heard them stalking us, but they didn't see us & we stayed very still, except for slight tremors and some wimpering and our stick held high.

The above might be slightly off-topic

I bid my maximum as a one time proxy bid whenever I'm inclined...sometimes the item has been newly listed sometimes I see it on ace as a watched auction...often days later I'm actually praying somebody snipes it away from me...LOL